Good news for South Africa’s busiest airport

 ·3 Jan 2023

Flight schedules have returned to normal at OR Tambo International Airport, says minister of transport Fikile Mbalula.

On 28 December, days before New Year’s Eve celebrations, the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) announced that challenges relating to refuelling aircraft resulted in flight delays.

Aircraft could not refuel due to a technical issue where a fuel supply valve was not opening. The company said this caused rotational delays to both international and domestic departures.

ACSA added that a contingency tanker was used to refuel aircraft. “A total of 41 flights were impacted, 32 being domestic, eight international and one regional.”

Mbalula visited ACSA to conduct oversight of the airport on Monday, 2 January. In a briefing to the media, he said that ACSA acted accordingly and swiftly to minimise the impact of the challenge within a reasonable time.

According to Mbalula, over the holiday period characterised by high volumes of travellers, the international airport handled roughly 300 departing air traffic movements per day both domestic and international on the busiest days.

“In terms of daily passenger volumes, the airport processed more than 27,000 departing domestic and international passengers per day on 9, 16 and 23 December 2022, which amounted to a 78% recovery rate from the previous year’s volumes,” said the minister.

The country’s airports are strategic assets and constitute major economic corridors connecting the country to the rest of the world, Mbalula said.

OR Tambo International Airport, also known as Johannesburg International Airport, is the largest and busiest airport in South Africa. The airport serves as the primary hub for South African Airways, and it is also a hub for several other airlines, including FlySafair, Lyft and more.

The CEO of ACSA Mpumi Mpofu added that following the peak season, the airport could welcome more travellers.

Jet fuel problem

Jet fuel has been a contentious topic in South Africa’s troubled airline space. Over the latter months of last year, worries over jet fuel supply and delays ran high.

OR Tambo, alongside others, including Cape Town International Airport in 2022, saw jet fuel stocks dwindle and its price hike – resulting in occasional delays and high ticket prices.

Discovery Vitality’s CEO, Dinesh Govender told the Sunday Times, before the start of the festive season (5 December), that jet fuel price has almost tripled.

In 2019, a gallon of Jet A1 fuel, which is just under four litres, cost around $1.80. Now, in 2022, it costs around $3.30, said Govender. This has knock-on effects on the price of a flight ticket.

Domestic jet fuel supply is also in the hands of importation and global supply chains. Instances such as last year’s mass strike action at the national logistics and freight company Transit revealed the fragility of supply when relying solely on importation.

On 18 October, the Airlines Association of South Africa (AASA) warned that knock-on effects from the Transnet strike could exacerbate fuel supply issues and result in a nationwide jet fuel shortage


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